British Gas billing error. Please help

messi10
messi10 Posts: 1 Newbie
in Energy
Hi everybody, hoping somebody here can help. My small shop used to be supplied by British Gas who use to bill me for a 5 digit meter plus a decimal point. And now they are billing me for £27,800. I've been paying a standard order of £130 per month for the 4 years I was with them and now I'm with Opus Energy. I've enclosed a picture of the meter which they are now claiming it is a 6 digit read and even though I have bank statements proving of those payments they are claiming I've never made a single payment on this account. British Gas are also claiming that I have extended my trading hours despite them never changing for the last 12 years!!!

Anybody who's had previous experience with a similar situation I would really appreciate some advice.

Link to the picture: ibb.co/QnsXHHw

Comments

  • frugalmacdugal
    frugalmacdugal Posts: 10,077 Forumite
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    Hi,


    here's the photie,


    meter.jpg
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,090 Forumite
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    Don't bother emailing or ringing - time for a written letter of COMPLAINT - quoting account number, address and that photo.
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
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    edited 18 February 2019 at 9:49AM
    That meter in the photo is a 5 digit meter.It says "single phase meter " and they should be 5 digits. Polyphase three phase meters would have 6 digits.. Sending the supplier the photo should get them to rebill..
    I work as a meter reader for BG and our handheld computers state how many digits the reading requires.Some business meters need up to 8 digits, so we should nt go wrong
    .So long as the last digit , the 1/10 of a unit is clearly separated by either colour or 1/10 s above it.
    .The photo is nt really good enough.Try and get a better one to send to OPUS.
    Edit..As Stewie says, do a little test with an appliance that you know how much it uses in a an hour. Easiest is with a 1 kwh 1 bar electric heater. no need to leave it for an hour. It should use one tenth of a unit in 6 minutes . You could use other electric appliances to check how quickly a tenth of a unit on the meter moves. Even a 2kw kettle on for 3 minutes should use 1 tenth of a unit.
  • stewie_griffin
    stewie_griffin Posts: 1,099 Forumite
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary
    I'd normally expect the last digits to be red if it was a 5 dial meter. It's unusual for a single phase domestic meter to be anything but 5 dial (excluding Secure smart) but that appears to be a 3 rate evening and weekend meter so may be different.

    The easiest way to know for certain would be to isolate the supply (so make sure everything is switched off) and then plug a 1 kW heater in for an hour and see if one of the rates advances just by one unit or by 10. If it just one then it is a 6 dial meter.
  • Robin9
    Robin9 Posts: 12,090 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    The blue ellipse appears to be hand drawn as an attempt to help the meter reader to not read the last digit.

    Have you copies of your account showing the £130 DD ?
    Never pay on an estimated bill
  • poundsNpence
    poundsNpence Posts: 34 Forumite
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    Robin9 wrote: »
    Don't bother emailing or ringing - time for a written letter of COMPLAINT - quoting account number, address and that photo.

    Exactly this.

    After months of emailing BG about an issue and only ever getting repetetive cut-and-paste "we're looking into it" and "it'll be fixed in 14 days" replies, I wrote to their complaints dept and within 5 days had a solution.
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